Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

How do you outline in a circle?

Most of us, me included, have way too much highschool experience with outlines. I get it. But they`re linear, with a drill-down capability that`s pretty simple. Go from Point A to Point B to Point C. If you want to go somewhere else, go back to the top level and do it again.

But a Help file or Web site is hyperlinked. It can go from anywhere, to anywhere.

I`m realizing as I build our site, that I keep getting a different idea for folder structure. Right now, we have our most basic, conceptual points in master folders under the root. Each folder usually breaks down into "docs" and "pix." That`s great, works fine.

But from the home page, there isn`t any "Page 1, page 2, page 3." Any page can be anywhere in the sequence, depending on the links and customer journey pathway.

Any ideas? How do you developers organize your folders?

CraigL,
Outlining a web site`s architecture is the first and most important thing when building a web site. Some of the things you have to take into consideration are

1. What do I want my web site to do?
2. Who`s going to access my web site?
3. What type of information do I want to have in it
4. Who is going to have access to this information and how? Login? FTP Access? HOW?
   
   Secondly, a most common architecture would look Like this if you are developing
   
   • css - for your stylesheets
   • scripts - If you are running Javascripts or any script.
   • flash - for flash banners or intro
   • include - contingent files that you can access or rely on the application.
     
   • forms - well I don`t have to say much about this one
   • images - Here is the tricky part - I usually make three other folders under the images folder 1 for supporting_images, 1 for PNG files, and 1 for thumbnails if there`s going to be any thumbnails involved.
   • notes - Keep any important information or notes that I make to myself on what I did last.
     
     Every project is going to vary on its needs, on some projects you may end up with another folder called db - which binds your database to your web site, another may be config. or something else.
     But the most basic architecture is css,  and images. Honestly don`t complicate things for yourself. So its better to keep it clean now than having to go back and try to figure things out later once your web site starts growing. Then it becomes disastrous.
     As for the sequence it doesn`t matter since most html editors put the files in order for you, but I wouldn`t want to name my pages page1, page2, page3... use something better_than that.
     
   I`ve developed my own architecture through the years and have found out that, the architecture that I just explained above is what I use the most, even if I don`t plan on using some of the folders, I know that they are there and allow myself room for growth.
   So what have you been doing lately ? Can I take a seek- peak at your web site?
   

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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

HTML sites are rare for me ... usually there is just the main folder with things like:

header.php
footer.php
index.php
and several other .php`s.
Having it structured like this just makes includes easier.

And then there is a directory called "css" and one called "images".

And that`s most of my sites.

If you have one with a WordPress install, then there is that, and that`s in /blog or whatever the name is. (Pursue the Passion has 2 WP installs, one at /journey and one at /interviews.) There might be a /store for a shopping install.

The consideration is this though ... /images and /css are for my purposes, to keep things neat.

/store, /blog, /journey, /interviews /previews and so on and so forth ... those are for other people to make the URLs easy.

Craig,

What you describe sounds like a database of information.

The organization/navigation of the site may be totally different than the organization of the content especially where there is a database of information/content. So, you may need to think about how viewers will use your website (from the user`s point of view).

The structure of your content...what folders etc. is important so you can find information, but it may not be realted to the navigation of the website.

Content may be pulled based upon search criteria... where the site`s navigation for that may simply be a link to a search page.

~Roland

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Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

Okay, the root folder has the typical organization Edgar listed. However, I don`t see anything for documents.

Figure an index page. That`ll have images, and clearly, there`s a need for an /images folder. But as soon as you move away from index, you`ve got another document (unless you`re not doing HTML).

In our case, we have two master products: signal flags (/Flags), and office chair slipcovers (/Chairs). I`ve divided those into images and docs.

I also see there`s a /Library I want under each master product folder, where I can put re-usable objects like logos, banners, backgrounds, and that sort of thing.

The problem is having all these *.html files that are the doc files.

Maybe a better question would be a) has anyone developed a Help file (to go with a software application), and b) if so, how did you organize all the content?

Your document files go in the root directory you don`t need another folder for those files, simple put them in the root folder.
Example:
css folder
images folder
index.html or php
contactus.html or php
and so forth.



-------------------------

Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

Ouch...! I see two problems with putting all docs in the root, similar to organizing a regular hard drive. First, keep in mind we have two product lines under the IB Designs name. We`re going to move signal flags to their own, but right now they`re part of IB Designs.

The second problem is the many different documents making up a site. I dunno, maybe not so much on this product, but what about say, New Individualism? That`ll be a whole reference site. I`d have a problem figuring out which document was where if they all were in the root?

How many .html files (doc files) would you guys say go into a typical Web site? Then what about a site like Amazon?

Craig so then create a directory (folder called slipcovers or sc and flags) and put all your slip cover files in it, remember you can have another index.html file inside that directory, and have another index.html inside the other directory and then link all of the index files to the Main Index file in your root directory.

So it would looksomething like this mycompany.com/flags/index.html and the other would look like this mycompany.com/sc/index.html and link those pages to your navigation bar.
Do you get my point?



-------------------------

Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

Yah, that`s what I`ve done. So the root has only the normal folders for CSS, and so on, then there`s /Flags.

Below that I have /docs and /pix. So we have /domain.com/flags/pix/library/thislogo.jpg.

In /pix, I`ve got /library (logos and reusables), then at the moment, I`m holding images for different types of ads or banners in their own folders. So there are /pix/products/ with images specific to flags and banners, then /pix/ads/ where I`m modifying various images according to certain ads we run.

I mean, it works for me at the moment, and I can find things just by looking at their path names. But I built it based on standard, linear outlining experience I learned long ago.

Isn`t there some alternate type of outlining when you`re working with hyperlinks? What do people do when they build an eBook with references all over the place?

Yah, this is more for me, and my being able to find things on the server. The navigational structure will be the end result, just like a Help system. It`ll make sense to the user. The problem is for me to easily find targets for links, and knowing when a file already exists that I can link to from a different location, as I`m adding pages.

The main problem is also where to put the pages so I know where everything is. It`d be nice to call each .html file, "page-1, page-2, page-3." Or, it`d be nice to have each page file called "I.html, I-A.html, I-B.html, II-A.html," and so forth. Like an outline.

But outlines don`t work when you`re able to hyperlink.